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Guys can any of you please advise me on a couple of questions pertaining to amatuer (ham) radio.
(1) is there a type of licence I can apply for that does NOT require me to learn morse?, IE a Ham Light licence.
(2) what is the best frequency band for Uk operations
(3) What Transcievers do you reccomend
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Read Lightspeeds aticle on the main site. It has a lot of info in and answers your questions.
Skean Dhude
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It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change. - Charles Darwin
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Hi NR,
I've posted comments nest to your questions below:
Regards
Lightspeed
(15 January 2012, 22:24)NorthernRaider Wrote: Guys can any of you please advise me on a couple of questions pertaining to amatuer (ham) radio.
(1) is there a type of licence I can apply for that does NOT require me to learn morse?, IE a Ham Light licence.
There is no longer any need to learn morse for any level of UK Amateur radio operating license. You have to take the license examinations in order. Foundation license first, then Intermediate and then Advanced. As noted in the article the Foundation license is pretty much all you'll need for prepping purposes, but the higher levels may be attractive to you as your knowlege developes.
Foundation license examnation is dead easy, it consists of simple practicals, a session called morse appreciation ( which requires no pre-preparation) and a multiple choice test ( 20 mins maximum). Training courses are available at local Ham radio clubs, all are well organized and have pass rates in the 90%+ range.
(2) what is the best frequency band for Uk operations.
The article discusses many options.Close range PMR446?, medium range VHF? and longer range HF, particularly 7Mhz and 14 Mhz. Maybe we should open a separate thead to discuss these further???
(3) What Transcievers do you reccomend
Ditto point 2.
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17 January 2012, 12:08
(This post was last modified: 17 January 2012, 12:13 by NorthernRaider.)
Thanks guys, tis appreciated.
What I want is a two way radio doofah (transciever?) hands held that will reach out 25 miles without a repeater, preferably not requiring a licence, multiple channels , and if santa was granting wishes that allowed to to monitor other channels as well like 27 FM CB and 27 AM CB. These poxy little half a watt hand sets are as much use as a trade unionist in a brothel. If or when the cell phone system failes after TSHTF I want to be able to contact my family members who will be up to 20 miles away maximum.
Is such a thing in existance.
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17 January 2012, 14:49
(This post was last modified: 17 January 2012, 15:13 by Lightspeed.)
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Thanks light speed, will you please forgive me if my replies are infrequent and slow, I truly have a terrible almost dyslexia type condition when it comes to radio systems etc, I'm downloading your stuff and very slowly trying to grasp it, I ASSURE you its not going to waste.
NR
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If you had ever seen me weild a 4 w soldering iron you would not post technical articles, I can cut through inch thick plate steel in a millisecond I'm that bad at electronics.
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NR
Ha ha! You'll not find many new Foundation licence holders wielding soldering irons these days!
Give the license a try, you'll be surprised how easy it is!
Gotta go, I've spent too much time on here today.
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